100 Facts About Billie Holiday’s Life and Legacy

(USA Today) – One hundred years ago, Billie Holiday, as she later became known, was born in Philadelphia.

The legendary singer would have an enormous impact on jazz and pop music. Here are 100 interesting facts about the highs and lows of her life, those she influenced and her lasting legacy.

1. Her birth name was Eleanora Fagan Gough.

2. There are discrepancies in her birth accounts, with Holiday claiming to be born in Baltimore in her memoirs while her biographer Donald Clarke notes a time of birth, name of doctor and original spelling of her name on her birth certificate dated April 7, 1915, from Philadelphia general hospital, according to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

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